This post is brought to you by the Swords of Fire anthology series, with the fourth book due in August of 2026. (It’s almost here!) Like the three previous collections, this one will feature four longer Sword & Sorcery adventures with one being “The Dragon God”, a Sirtago & Poet tale set in a country much like Japan. This is by Jack Mackenzie, of course. There is also the next adventure of Bradik the Slayer by M. D. Jackson, “The Star of Kanshalsus”. One of the other two tales is a new Arthan the Bear Man story, “The Twilight War” featuring an army of mercenaries versus giant spiders. And to round out the four, “Between the Dragon and His Wrath” by Will Parker. For the previous anthologies, go here.
The Mighty Samson was a post-apocalyptic adventure comic from Western/Gold Key Comics. Some might described it as a Sword & Sorcery comic in the tradition of Thundarr the Barbarian, but that would be impossible since the cartoon came out in 1980. The Mighty Samson began in 1964 and ran for thirty-two issues. Both of these classics feature a world ravaged by atomic war, transformed into a deadly arena of strange new fauna and flora. (It is the flora that interests us today.) Like Western’s other long-running comic, Turok, Son of Stone that began two years earlier, Samson featured a number of George Wilson covers showing the mighty hero against any number of terrible beasts. Two of those covers even feature a plant monster. Many issues begin with an establishing shot of giant trees that are not mobile monsters but the new look of N’Yark in this far future era. The world is born anew!
The comic was written by Otto Binder of Science Fiction Pulp fame. The artwork was done by future S&S star Frank Thorne who would give us the best version of Red Sonja a decade later. Joe Certa drew #8 with Jack Sparling drawing for #9-20. (The plant monsters take a back seat after #17, so the later writers and artists are not really important here. Otto Binder left after #21.)
Right from the first encounter, Samson fought against plants. In issue #1, “Mighty Samson” July 1964, begins with the baby Samson (as yet unnamed) and his mother captured by a vine killer. The babe, a mutant himself of great strength, tears the plant apart. Mom recalls a great hero named Samson and gives him the same name. The plant monster here looks like a giant Venus Flytrap with a snaky vine.
In the same issue, “Ancient Weapon” has Samson and his new friends encounter a cactus that shoots its spines. Samson kills it by throwing a boulder at it. Not really important to the story, it gets things going.
In Issue #3, “Peril From the Past”, September 1965, Samson has to rescue Dr. Pitt from a man-eating plant. This one is a central plant with spiny vines that snap up like a killer cage. Samson pulls Pitt out through the top before the spines can kill him. Again, not really important to the story but a nice threat.
Issue #8, “The Migration Mystery”, December 1966, features a plant similar to the one Dr. Pitt faced but this one has a flower on the end of a tentacle at the center. It is called the “Petal Prison Plant” and its blossom acts like a mouth. Samson deals with it by clubbing it to pieces.
Issue #11, “The Swap Rats”, August 1967 give3s us our first cover. Samson agrees to help Hulko with cutting some timber in the woods. Unfortunately for the lumberjacks, the trees fight back. They are attacked by a tree-beast. Samson tales it out with an ax. You have to remember that for the last ten issues, Samson has been pulling full-grown trees out of the ground. Not much of a challenge.
Issue #14, May 1968 featured this black & white Jack Sparling drawn piece about the plants of Samson’s world (written by an unknown author). “In Samson’s future time, mutant plant monsters are no less terrorizing than the animal freaks…” We couldn’t have said it better.
Issue #17, “Seeds of Disaster”, February 1969 is without doubt Samson’s best plant adventure. (It was written by Otto Binder so it has to have a UFO-like ship in it.) Terra of Derz plots the conquest of N’Yark with her new disaster seeds. These become sword grass, stranding Samson, Charmaine and Mindor. They escape by climbing a crane. Later Samson discovers a garden on the roof of a building, guarded by Roofians. He takes them out with giant vegetables. Terra zaps him with an electric prod, knocking him out.
Samson and friends wake to find themselves in a garden of Man-Traps. Samson is eaten by one but uses his strength to break out.
They see giant trees that produce a cottony film then are attacked by more vines. Samson pulls them out of the ground.
Later Terra throws herself at Samson because she is in love with him. He rejects her and the trio are given to the killer vines. Fortunately, Mindor the scientist hasn’t been sleeping and has invented a potion that kills the vines. Terra’s plant reign has come to an end. Mindor writes about “the horticultural horrors” in his journal.
Conclusion
The later writers did not have Otto’s love of killer plants and so there aren’t any more after Issue #17. I can’t recall Eando Binder (Earl and Otto) ever writing a killer plant story for the Pulps but then again I haven’t read them all. They were fans of early SF so they certainly were familiar with them, probably those in Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories as well as Weird Tales. Otto left the Pulps for DC Comics where he created Supergirl with Al Plastino. (Did they get a credit in the new movie?) He later left comics for UFOlogy.
To go back to Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon from 1980. The second episode was called “Harvest of Doom” and featured the Death Flowers. (It was written by Buzz Dixon, Mark Evanier and Steve Gerber, comic book writers all.) Not man-eaters, these blossoms produce a pollen gas that allows brain-washing. They are raised by the alligator men known as Carocs for an evil wizard. Ookla the Mock gets brain-controlled and has to fight his friends. (I thought Thundarr might chop up a few killer vines since the show had a violence problem. You can’t slice up critters on SatAm cartoons unless they are robots. So many robots…)
Sword & Sorcery from RAGE machine Books
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